Summer weekends are the busiest of weekends that is for sure! After two weeks of early mornings braiding followed by the normal work and horse schedule, I was ready for a relaxing weekend! Unfortunately, I did not schedule one of those! But that's lucky for you because that would be pretty boring to read about, wouldn't it?
Saturday morning, Jampy and I had a horse show on the schedule. I got up at 5:45 (not too early!) and got him all braided and ready to go. Of course I got there too early as is my norm, but that was nice as it gave my helper and me plenty of time to get organized. I was pretty nervous about showing this weekend as none of my trainers were in town to help me out. It was just Jampy, my helper, and me! Yikes! I had to prep my own horse! Fortunately, Jampy and I seem to have gotten our acts together and we only embarrassed ourselves in one of the classes. Want a recap?? Sure you do! (Oh also, my helper took pictures this time!)
My first class was a flat class with 9 people in it. (Which was really odd as most classes at this horse show had maybe 4 people in them, it was really small!) Jampy was perfect the first direction, but the second way he started to get a little excited. I had to hold his mouth the entire way around to keep him from getting too excited. But it worked out ok as we won! Woohoo! (Good boy Jampy for holding it together!)
After the flat we went out to school over some jumps. He was still a little excited, and was pulling me to the jumps. I decided to let him play on the lunge line for a few minutes and work out the crazies. I'm not sure that was the best call though....
Our first jumping class was pretty close to perfect! We won that one too out of 13 riders. Good pony! Fence class #2 went pretty well, though Jampy was getting a bit tired. I was getting to the jumps just a little off our stride. So we were slightly further away from the ideal "distance" and the take off was just a little weak. I think it must have looked a little prettier than it felt though as we finished in 2nd. (My photos later will show a yellow ribbon, I thought we were third in the class, but we were actually second, oops!). The third class, I have to admit, was a disaster. DISASTER! My distance to the first fence was sooooo close to the jump, Jampy had to pop up to make it over. (That's really unattractive!) The next few jumps were nice, and then as I was coming around the turn to jump the line RIGHT NEXT TO THE JUDGE, Jamp broke to the trot. SUPER BIG NO-NO! I got the canter back in time to have the jumps work out well, but then I got much to close the last fence as well. Ugh. This all happened because poor Jampy was exhausted, and clearly, I was not helping him out much! Poor guy. Needless to say, we didn't get a prize in that one! Thankfully we had a little break before our last class.
The last one for us that day was the NEHC medal. This class is a qualifier for the Finals in October. I had shown in the class once earlier this year and placed second, meaning I was 4 points shy of qualifying. Third place is 4 points, so it looked like I had a decent chance of getting it done! There were only 4 people in it, so the odds were on my side! The break did both Jampy and I some good, and we managed to win the medal class too! Whoa! Good day at the pony show! We finished up Champion in the Adult Equitation Division (two weeks in a row)!
But here's where the day gets really good... My vet happens to also be the horse show vet, and I
asked begged him to stop by on his way home to give Rio a quick little check up. I've been pretty worried about him since he's had so much muscle loss in his face, and really wanted a professional opinion as to his health status. Well... I'm so glad he stopped by! He inspected Rio's face and watched him walk and jog, and told me he thinks he's doing great! He feels that the recent atrophy is more residual to the original infection and not a relapse. He even thinks there's a chance he'll improve. Holy good news! Yay!
After ALL this, I met my brother, sister-in-law, and niece at the local carnival. My niece is too little for most of the rides and things, but she loved seeing all the flashy lights and kids running around. So cute!
She's the little one being held in this photo. I don't feel right posting other's people's kids on my blog, so no faces, sorry! But you'll have to trust me she was having a blast! On my way out I won the fried dough lottery (two pieces stuck together, counted as only 1! Mmmmm), and got some treats for the ponies of course:
Is it me, or did Saturday seem like a full weekend all in itself? Somehow it was only one day. WHOA. Sunday I slept in. Yes. Till 9. It was glorious. Until the knock on my door from my weekend barn cleaner at 9:05. Apparently Ducky who had gotten this fat lip:
Decided to rub it against the fence until it started bleeding. Then he decided to bleed alllll over the barn door. Oh no, not the door inside his stall. The outside door where all the world can think there was some kind of massacre at the farm. <<Sigh>> Kids. So I put on some jeans and a shirt, and set out to clean up Ducky and the barn door. Thankfully it's nothing major, and almost everything cleaned up fairly easily.
Next stop was the farmer's market where I managed to come home with mostly non-healthy goodies... oops. Here are my spoils:
In case you can't see, here's what I got:
A baguette, a loaf of English Muffin Bread, Honey Butter, cupcakes, four different cheeses, blueberries, cucumber, tomatoes, and potatoes. Mmmmmmmmmm
Next was the real adventure! This guy right here:
went off to spend a month (or maybe two) at cowboy camp. His antics have gone on long enough, so it's time he learned some lessons from the professionals. I really hope he comes back with a better attitude! I dropped him off and chit chatted with the trainer and owners at the farm. (I had another horse spend some time there a few years back, so we're all old friends!) Ducky seemed to settle in well enough. I am excited to go visit him in a week or two and see how it's going. It's definitely a little strange in the barn with only Jamp and Rio. Ducky always knickers at me when I walk in, and the other boys are so quiet!
My last weekend event was a quick visit to see my friend and her new baby boy. He is so itty bitty! I played trains with her older son for awhile, which was seriously just as fun as when I was a kid. (I'm pretty sure I'll never grow up.) Such a sweet family they are!
I got home around 8 and hung out with the pugs. They really know how to do weekends:
I followed their lead and napped on the floor with them until bedtime. Yep. Wild and crazy over here at the farm!
How was your weekend? Do anything crazy and fun?
